1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an enclosure for housing a toll fee tracking device and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an enclosure that selectively enables and disables communication between the toll fee tracking device and toll collection units at toll stations.
2. History of Related Art
The crowding of highways within metropolitan areas has resulted in the development of additional traffic arteries known as toll roads. Toll roads have become increasingly popular, however, they require payment of a toll fee for use. Collection of tolls by conventional means, such as, for example, manned toll stations has had a negative effect upon highway throughput and safety. Congestion and long backups on toll stations are becoming more common. Such conditions involve a significant economic cost, through lost time and reduced productivity. Moreover, serious accidents at toll stations, caused by vehicle operators or mechanical failures, have also increased in frequency.
Certain toll authorities have attempted to respond to these problems by providing coin-operated toll collection devices, or by instituting a toll-plate system in which toll-takers visually inspect each incoming vehicle for an appropriate toll plate or sticker. Coin operated toll collection systems, however, do little to increase throughput, and are susceptible to fraud through the use of counterfeit coins. Toll-plate systems suffer the same deficiencies, requiring each vehicle to slow sharply while entering the visual inspection area. In later years, a development ensued that revolutionized toll road travel. This was the development of the toll fee tracking device.
Various automatic toll collection systems have been proposed to reduce dependency on a manual attendant for collection of toll fees that a vehicle operator must present at toll stations. It has been known for some time to provide special tokens which the vehicle operators may deposit at the toll stations without manual intervention, with a deposit and subsequent processing of the token providing the vehicle with a signal allowing the vehicle to pass through the toll station. Such a system disadvantageously requires vehicle operators to periodically buy a supply of such tokens which are generally only usable at the toll stations.
More recently, individually coded electronic transponders are being supplied for mounting to the vehicle. Toll authorities utilize toll transponders such as, for example, EZPASS® for AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification)/ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) when vehicles use a toll authority. For example, the transponders are typically mounted and exposed on a vehicle windshield and emit signals identifying a particular vehicle as having an active account with the toll authority. The transponders are issued by the toll authority with pre-paid or post-paid accounts assigned. For example, when a vehicle with the transponder passes through an active toll station on a toll road, a payment for the toll transaction is made though the pre-paid or post-paid account previously established and identified by a transponder identification number.
This toll collection system advantageously simplifies a process of collecting tolls, speeds up traffic flow through the toll stations, and reduces the cost of collecting tolls by dispensing with a need to have attendants at toll stations to make a currency exchange with vehicle operators. However, because of the continued presence of the transponder in an activated mode within the vehicle, there may be situations when the vehicle operators prefer not to use the transponder for toll payment. For example, the vehicle operator may want to pay a particular toll with currency rather than have it automatically debited to the pre-paid or post-paid account set up in association with the transponder. Furthermore, an ability to ascertain an identification of the transponder at a location other than the toll station may subject the transponder to improper cloning, or be a basis for privacy concerns. Accordingly, it would be preferable to limit activation of the transponder to situations in which the vehicle operator passing through the toll station desires to utilize the transponder for automatic toll payment.